Gender Alert on COVID-19 in Lebanon

This is the fifth issue in the Gender Alert: Lebanon COVID-19 series, and the first to focus on gender equality issues in national lockdowns in response to the pandemic. Here we document rising food insecurity concerns amongst women and marginalized groups. During the lockdown period assessed, 53% of SGBV service providers surveyed reported that the primary requests from callers (vastly female) on their hotlines were requests for cash assistance and basic needs, followed by psychosocial support needs and access to safe shelter. Gender responsive cash assistance and social assistance must be scaled up immediately in a way that prioritizes marginalized women, girls and gender minorities, and does not discriminate against Lebanese female citizens married to foreigner due to discriminatory nationality laws. Gender analysis of the vaccination plan shows a substantial representation of women (at least or near 50%) on the national committee, however, teachers, a majority female labor force, have not be designated as essential workers to receive the vaccine; this will have a major implications to women and children, who bear the brunt of school closures.